''Stronger Than Death'' is a 1920 American silent

romantic drama film Romance films involve romantic love stories recorded in visual media for broadcast in theatres or on television that focus on passion (emotion), passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. Typically their ...

directed by Herbert Blaché and produced by and starring Alla Nazimova. It was distributed by

Metro Pictures Metro Pictures Corporation was a Film, motion picture production company founded in early 1915 in Jacksonville, Florida. It was a forerunner of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The company produced its films in New York, Los Angeles, and sometimes at le ...

. This movie was preserved by

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

, the inheritor of Metro Pictures library, with a print in the George Eastman House Motion Picture Collection.

Plot

As described in a film magazine, Major Tristam Boucicault (Bryant) endeavors to get his father Colonel Boucicault (French) to aid him in fighting the

cholera Cholera () is an infection of the small intestine by some Strain (biology), strains of the Bacteria, bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea last ...

in the distant city of Bjura, where he is the lone physician fighting the disease. The colonel refuses and the son, angered, leaves in an ugly mood. His attention is arrested by Sigrid Fersen (Nazimova), who is being entertained by the officers and their wives. She promises to aid him and follows the major to Bjura. She raises a large sum at a bazaar. Here she refuses the hand of James Barclay (Prior), a wealthy half-breed that the elite have refused to recognize socially. Sigrid overhears a conversation between James and the high priest of a temple during which it is disclosed that the colonel is in reality James' father. James is planning the ruin of Colonel Boucicault. In an altercation between the colonel and major, Tristam strikes his father down. James sees the fight and under penalty of disclosing the facts forces Sigrid to marry him that night. At the wedding dinner, Colonel Boucicault denounces James for attempting to incite a mutiny in the camp, and James swears vengeance upon him as his father. Sigrid is urged to go to the temple and dance for the natives to keep them from joining the mutiny, while the major goes to collect the colonel's troops and surround the temple. James shoots the high priest as he is about to plunge a dagger into Sigrid, and the natives fall upon James and kill him. Major Boucicault takes the exhausted dancer to his hut where she recovers consciousness and determines to live for the love that is stronger than death.

Cast

* Alla Nazimova as Sigrid Fersen * Charles Bryant as Major Tristam Boucicault * Charles K. French as Colonel Boucicault * Margaret McWade as Mrs. Boucicault * Herbert Prior as James Barclay * William Orlamond as Rev. Mr. Meredith (credited as William H. Orlamond) * Milla Davenport as Mrs. Smithers *Bhowgan Singh as Ayeshi *Henry Harmon as Vahana * Dagmar Godowsky

References

External links

* 1920 films American silent feature films Films directed by Herbert Blaché Films directed by Robert Z. Leonard 1920 romantic drama films American black-and-white films Metro Pictures films 1920s American films Silent American romantic drama films 1920s English-language films English-language romantic drama films {{Silent-romantic-drama-film-stub